SPRINGFIELD -- The chairman and CEO of Peoria-based Caterpillar Inc. is raising the specter of moving the heavy equipment maker out of Illinois.

In a letter sent March 21 to Gov. Pat Quinn, Caterpillar chief executive officer Doug Oberhelman said officials in at least four other states have approached the company about relocating since Illinois raised its income tax in January.

"I want to stay here. But as the leader of this business, I have to do what's right for Caterpillar when making decisions about where to invest," Oberhelman wrote in the letter obtained Friday by the Lee Enterprises Springfield bureau. "The direction that this state is headed in is not favorable to business and I'd like to work with you to change that."

Oberhelman said he's being actively courted to move.

"I have been called, 'cornered' in meetings and 'wined and dined' -- the heat is on," Oberhelman wrote. "Before, I never really considered living anywhere else and certainly never considered the possibility of Caterpillar relocating. But I have to admit, the policymakers in Springfield seem to make it harder by the day."

Cat spokesman Jim Dugan said the letter was designed to show Quinn that Oberhelman wants to be involved in finding solutions that benefit the company, which employs 23,000 people in Illinois.

3M has a company policy of no more expansion in Minneapolis for that same reason. They expand in Texas.

fettpett

03-25-2011, 09:39 PM

they should go to Wisconsin :D

PoliCon

03-25-2011, 09:49 PM

When the hell will the left wake up and realize they're SHRINKING their tax base and cutting their tax income by raising taxes. AND when businesses go - not only do they lose the taxes they would have gotten from the business - but they also lose the taxes they would have gotten from the employees and from the associated businesses and their employees. :rolleyes:

fettpett

03-25-2011, 09:55 PM

When the hell will the left wake up and realize they're SHRINKING their tax base and cutting their tax income by raising taxes. AND when businesses go - not only do they lose the taxes they would have gotten from the business - but they also lose the taxes they would have gotten from the employees and from the associated businesses and their employees. :rolleyes:

yep...works the same on a national level when a company moves it's headquarters overseas

Apocalypse

03-25-2011, 10:02 PM

This will be an almost deathblow to some towns in Illinois.

Cat employs almost 94000 company wide, and is headquartered in Ill. If they leave that is a lot of jobs, and $ following them. With them follows suppliers, truckers, and so forth. This has got to have gotten the attention of the Gov there now that his high taxes is driving business out of the state.

If they leave, I hope they jump the river and move into Bettindorf Iowa. That would be an economic boom for Iowa and a sore to Ill having them move just across the river away from them.

fettpett

03-25-2011, 10:10 PM

This will be an almost deathblow to some towns in Illinois.

Cat employs almost 94000 company wide, and is headquartered in Ill. If they leave that is a lot of jobs, and $ following them. With them follows suppliers, truckers, and so forth. This has got to have gotten the attention of the Gov there now that his high taxes is driving business out of the state.

If they leave, I hope they jump the river and move into Bettindorf Iowa. That would be an economic boom for Iowa and a sore to Ill having them move just across the river away from them.

either one would work, but how much of a slap in the face would it be to those assholes that have claimed that Walker's budget/tax moves wouldn't bring jobs to WI and they ended up the new home for Cat?

Rockntractor

03-25-2011, 10:13 PM

This will be an almost deathblow to some towns in Illinois.

Cat employs almost 94000 company wide, and is headquartered in Ill. If they leave that is a lot of jobs, and $ following them. With them follows suppliers, truckers, and so forth. This has got to have gotten the attention of the Gov there now that his high taxes is driving business out of the state.

If they leave, I hope they jump the river and move into Bettindorf Iowa. That would be an economic boom for Iowa and a sore to Ill having them move just across the river away from them.

They are discontinuing their truck engines because of the governments new pollution regs for diesels.

fettpett

03-25-2011, 10:17 PM

They are discontinuing their truck engines because of the governments new pollution regs for diesels.

:eek: thats bull....they went through that change in the sulfur regs a couple years ago and now making it harder to produce diesel engines? now you know that they don't care about the environment

Rockntractor

03-25-2011, 10:25 PM

:eek: thats bull....they went through that change in the sulfur regs a couple years ago and now making it harder to produce diesel engines? now you know that they don't care about the environment

Yep, finest truck engines ever made, no longer in production.

megimoo

03-25-2011, 10:28 PM

they should go to Wisconsin :DChances are they'll go to China !

Apocalypse

03-25-2011, 10:45 PM

Chances are they'll go to China !

Maybe some of the manufacturing, but they will want to stay here in the states HQ wise as they don't want to lose out to John Deere in the process. In addition, they still build lots of mining trucks, and those are mighty large to load onto a boat and ship over here.

On that note, JD is located in Ill. as well. Wonder if they are looking for a new home?

Novaheart

03-25-2011, 11:12 PM

they should go to Wisconsin :D

Hyundai and some other companies make heavy equipment too. Toyota is the world's largest maker of forklifts.

I'd be willing to bet that Caterpillar's single largest customer is the American taxpayer, so maybe they should be careful how they phrase things.

Apocalypse

03-25-2011, 11:28 PM

Chances are they'll go to China !

Did a little looking, and they have in a bit.

Originally Posted by Rockntractor View Post
They are discontinuing their truck engines because of the governments new pollution regs for diesels.

Granted its for boats and generators, but they are moving a lot to China.

There were some pretty good small diesel engine for generators, tillers, air compressors, etc... coming from china at great prices but our new regs pretty much dried that up too, they did the same to small Japanese diesel engines, that is why you don't see diesels in Toyota's anymore.
Carbon is not a pollutant!!!

megimoo

03-25-2011, 11:35 PM

Maybe some of the manufacturing, but they will want to stay here in the states HQ wise as they don't want to lose out to John Deere in the process. In addition, they still build lots of mining trucks, and those are mighty large to load onto a boat and ship over here.

On that note, JD is located in Ill. as well. Wonder if they are looking for a new home?
Next up John Deere .These political critters are dumber than dirt .The raise taxes to the moon and then company's look around for a new place to live.In the end the Politicians loose hundreds of millions in taxes to make a few bucks..dumb shits ..

Rockntractor

03-25-2011, 11:42 PM

Next up John Deere .These political critters are dumber than dirt .The raise taxes to the moon and then company's look around for a new place to live.In the end the Politicians loose hundreds of millions in taxes to make a few bucks..dumb shits ..

A good portion of John Deere diesel engines are already Chinese.

Constitutionally Speaking

03-25-2011, 11:47 PM

yep...works the same on a national level when a company moves it's headquarters overseas

Factories also.

megimoo

03-25-2011, 11:48 PM

A good portion of John Deere diesel engines are already Chinese.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAsV5-Hv-7U

Rockntractor

03-25-2011, 11:52 PM

We need to start packing these shipping containers from China with progressives, environmentalists and Democrat politicians and send them to China.

megimoo

03-25-2011, 11:55 PM

We need to start packing these shipping containers from China with progressives, environmentalists and Democrat politicians and send them to China.
Take em to the Mindanao Deep and dump em !

Adam Wood

03-26-2011, 01:10 AM

This will be an almost deathblow to some towns in Illinois.

Cat employs almost 94000 company wide, and is headquartered in Ill. If they leave that is a lot of jobs, and $ following them. With them follows suppliers, truckers, and so forth. This has got to have gotten the attention of the Gov there now that his high taxes is driving business out of the state.

If they leave, I hope they jump the river and move into Bettindorf Iowa. That would be an economic boom for Iowa and a sore to Ill having them move just across the river away from them.It wouldn't surprise me to see them consolidate their HQ with their financial operations here in Nashville. Can't say it would hurt my feelings, either.

PoliCon

03-26-2011, 08:52 AM

either one would work, but how much of a slap in the face would it be to those assholes that have claimed that Walker's budget/tax moves wouldn't bring jobs to WI and they ended up the new home for Cat?

Problem is - everyone suspects Walker is not going to last and WI will revert back to union heaven. When WI gets 10 or 15 years of probusiness policies under their belts - then maybe.

PoliCon

03-26-2011, 08:54 AM

This will be an almost deathblow to some towns in Illinois.

Cat employs almost 94000 company wide, and is headquartered in Ill. If they leave that is a lot of jobs, and $ following them. With them follows suppliers, truckers, and so forth. This has got to have gotten the attention of the Gov there now that his high taxes is driving business out of the state.

If they leave, I hope they jump the river and move into Bettindorf Iowa. That would be an economic boom for Iowa and a sore to Ill having them move just across the river away from them.

eh - maybe. The problem there is it wouldn't hurt Illinois badly enough. Employees would be able to stay in Illinois and work in Iowa.

Starbuck

03-26-2011, 09:54 AM

The competition from Detroit Diesel, Cummins, and to a lesser extent Navistar (International) has driven Cat to stick with their off road design.

I drove Detroit DD15's for a while and they would be hard to compete with. But off road - like graders and such - Cat has the market all to themselves.

Marine engines are mostly Yanmar and Cat. The John Deere engines are actually Yanmar.

I don't think anyone really competes in both markets.

fettpett

03-26-2011, 02:55 PM

A good portion of John Deere diesel engines are already Chinese.

my father in law helped set up a shop over there...employees suck, 90% come off the farm, quite literally within a few days before getting hired, most having never seen heavy machinery of any kind before that

fettpett

03-26-2011, 02:57 PM

Problem is - everyone suspects Walker is not going to last and WI will revert back to union heaven. When WI gets 10 or 15 years of probusiness policies under their belts - then maybe.

Business are already moving there. If he can get a company like Cat to move there, that would show how well his polices are working.

Constitutionally Speaking

03-27-2011, 12:21 AM

my father in law helped set up a shop over there...employees suck, 90% come off the farm, quite literally within a few days before getting hired, most having never seen heavy machinery of any kind before that

:confused: Most farm boys are used to USING that heavy equipment.

PoliCon

03-27-2011, 12:35 AM

:confused: Most farm boys are used to USING that heavy equipment.

I learned to drive a tractor when I was 9 . . . .

fettpett

03-27-2011, 04:56 AM

:confused: Most farm boys are used to USING that heavy equipment.

yes, in the United States. but we're talking China here, their rice is largely handpicked/planted still